The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1901.

Evening Star, Issue 11451, 19 January 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1901.

Tiik poll on the tramways loan is to be C'ken on Monday, and we nnclaj s seize | a ,- t opportunity of ° • expressing an earnest hope that the ratepayers will ] )c • :nc to the cause ox progress and cnligh.te.nmuit Me arc sorry to observe that tactics of a decidedly unworthy order are being employer] at the last moment by the obstructionist party, and at the present time there lies before ns a circular filled with ex-party and irrelevant statements calculated j„ hrunbnoido the ratepayers and to confuse the usue that has to be, determined on Monday Irrelevant, we say, for let the public Vmm mind that Monday’s issue is general, not particular; a matter of principle, not of detail. Ihe municipalisation of the tramways the substitution of electricity for horses'as the power, and the adoption of the overhead trolly system-theso three points are practically all that the voters need bother themselves about on Monday, as the various (-e.cads (in regard to the actual expenditure ot the money, contracting, etc.) can be decided afterwards. Public opinion will have no difficulty in making its voice beard respecting these matters—-with exceeding plainness if necessity should arise; and for our own part, we. shall have something to say about the situation as soon as the loan has been sanctioned. But the confirmation of ‘ho general principle is the firat necessity "] n the specious circular to which w c have referred it is urged that the ratepayers, bv voting against the proposed loan will no( express disapproval 0 f the municipalisation «{ the tramways. Dunedin voters are too levelheaded to be deluded by paradoxical absurdities of this kind. Wo cannot waste time over the now doctrine that the best way to support a project is to vote against it. Wo admit that the. City Council have been remiss m the matter of circulating information but the Mayor’s speech Friday w e ek partly removed this grievance, (nuf'dlianks lo the Press more than to the Corporation) the ratepayers can hardly plead ignorance on loose questions of general principle, which arc a. 1 that they have to decide on Monday Vie re use to believe that they will allow themselves to be deluded into the notion that they can nest serve the principle of municipalisation by playing into the hands of its irreconcilable opponents. The obviously proper course for the ratepayers is to sanction the raising of the loan (without which the whole project must come to a standstill) and then for the City Council to proceed cautiously and thoroughly in their work remembering that the eyes of the Press and tho public are upon them, and that they retire in a body three months hence. It f s utterly unreasonable to ask that the popular confirmation of the loan .should be delayed until every detail of the subsequent procedure has been placed before tho ratepayers. In conclusion, wo can only express the opinion that a failure on Monday would be discreditable lo the intelligence and progressive reputation of the City, and that the ratepayers will allow neither laziness nor the wiles of a perverse and not over-scrupulous foe to keep them from doing their duty to the cause of civic progress. Whilst the absurdity of the licensing law in regard to the local option The Clntha enactments is sufficiently eviProsccutlons. dent, owing to the patent anomaly of only one district in the-Colony having adopted "no license,” still it is the law, and the duty of every good citizen is to uphold it, endeavoring, if his mind be that way, to secure the repeal in constitutional and legitimate ways. Holding an opinion as to the impolicy of an Act of Parliament on any grounds is no justification of a breach of its provisions, either overtly or through tacit encouragement of the law-breaker. The action, therefore, of Mr Stratford, S.M., in inflicting heavy fines and sentencing to terms of imprisonment the sly grog-sellers of the Clutha, should meet with general approval, whilst it may have the effect of making the people of the district realise the full sense of tho position in which they have been placed, assumedly by the votes of the mi-

jority. As the !'uv stands, they are now in a cleft stick, us it were, being practically helpless to reverse the verdict, in consequence of certain technical difliculties arising from a slight alteration of boundaries. Special legislation is required to meet those difficulties, and in the meantime those doomed to compulsory temperance must make the best of things, and not defy the law, which theoretically is the voice of the people, freely and constitutionally expressed. Mr Stratford put the matter very clearly, and he is to be commended for expressing a full comprehension of his duty, and for the faithful fullilrnent of that duly, lire magistrate, he rightly states, is the servant of Parliament, and has to administer statute law as he birds it. In this particular district the people had decided by a majority that there should be no licenses, and- his plain duty he conceived to be to assist, in his judicial capacity, in giving effect to that decision. He proceeded to say that when taking charge of the district some months ago lie .had begun by exercising leniency towards offenders against the licensing laws, but bad found that small penalties were of no avail. He would therefore raise them, and continue to do so up to the extreme limit of the penal clauses of the Act, until this blot of deliberate lawlessness was wiped out from the district over which he judicially presided. Mr Stratford is taking the right course, and his infliction of imprisonment in the grosser cases is prettv certain to suppress sly grog-selling, and in every respect enforce compliance with the law. The Government have been charged, wc believe without the slightest foundation, with practically conniving at the evasion of the law in the Clutha and elsewhere. It is therefore satisfactory to tind the Crown Prosecutor, presumably under direct instructions, indicating the attitude of the Crown. Clutha, he staled, was a “nolicense district, and the law wrrs being deliberately and persistently broken throughout the length and breadth' of the district, whilst fines seemed to be no preventive or check. Tire Legislature had thought fit to pass a special Act in 1895, and under it a line of £SO might be imposed for a first offence. For a second or subsequent offence a term of imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months might be inflicted. Imprisonment was the onl3 r curative for tnc evil of sly grog-selling, and he intended “to press for this in every case.” Under the circumstances the offenders convicted at Baiciutha yesterday may be considered to have got oii very lightly, since the evidence disclosed sly grog-selling on a large and systematic scale; end in the cases where short terms or imprisonment were imposed there were previous convictions recorded against the offenders. Mr Stratford tempered justice with mere}’, but he has sufficiently demonstrated his quality, and little mercy is likely to be shown by tire Court in future to deliberate breakers of the licensing laws in the Clutha. Great credit, we consider, is due to the police (under Inspector Pender) for the skilful and complete manner in which the cases were worked up, in the face of great difficulties in securing satisfactory evidence for conviction.